He likes the look of that Cadillac.

[reddragdiva]

I forgot to note previously: B-Movie February 2005 up. There are some really gorgeous shots in this set, thus proving it's the subject and photographer. stephmog is the star of this one, and the shot of sushidog was good enough to iconise.

I just got another camera for the Ixus pile that I'm eager to find good homes for. Presently it looks like:

• Two PowerShot S100 — the first model. Thirsty and slow compared to later models, but very nice photos. Cheap: £40 each to you squire, with charger and spare battery. — one bagsed by hazybubbles!
• A PowerShot S110 — a.k.a. Ixus v. Later model, same picture quality but a bit more advanced. the_rin expressed an interest but hasn't gotten in touch. £60 with full original kit in box. the_rin has bagsed this!
• Not an Ixus: a Casio Exilim EX-S1 — only 1.3MP real (2.0MP interpolated), but an insanely tiny spy camera with a remarkably low shutter lag time. £50, full kit except box. This is an EX-S2, 2MP real.

Anyone with an interest in any of the above, please let me know — anything not going to you lot (or this lot) will end up on eBay. Pick up in person from E17 or six quid post/pack. The 2MP Ixus are particularly noteworthy for really nice optics for a miniature camera; that is, a five year old 2MP that takes far better shots than the 5MP you're trying to work out if you can afford right now. Also, feel free to ask for assistance in camera stalking if you're after something else. Email: dgerard@gmail.com .

Others in the works:

• An Ixus v2 which doesn't take pictures — daneel_olivaw's old camera. Works perfectly otherwise. Could be a bad CCD, a loose wire or something severely fucked up in the optical path. Will be extremely nice when fixed.
• An Ixus IIs suffering an E18 error — bought to see if I can fix an E18 myself.
• An Ixus 400 — one of the very best Ixus ever made, on its way now. This one is likely to become mine. Though it's complete in box, so I might sell it on and get a lone 400 for myself.
• Two Ixus 50, not quite working — one here with a stuck lens, one on its way with "cosmetic damage." Frankencamera is likely.

And of course:

• One Ixus 50 — my lovely little camera I did these sets on. My current very own camera, though the optics are actually better on the older models.

The guy I got the S100 from this morning has a shiny new S2 IS. What a very useful toy that could be ...

Comments

[secretlondon.livejournal.com]

What are the stats of the S100? How many megapixels etc? I have an A80 - which also has nice optics (Canons are nice - it really is about optics rather than fuck loads of megapixels and a shite lens). However megapixels look better in the adverts.

[reddragdiva]

2MP. Review. (I've now linked reviews above.) I find it useful to show people the output of a 2MP early Ixus so they can see for themselves how nice photos more or less drop out of it magically, compared to this year's 4-5MP Chinese no-brand which is a perfectly nice camera but just nothing like as good.

[secretlondon.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what the difference is between Canon A and S models. Are S supposed to be a more advanced line?

Anyone this is the one I really want - the first "consumer" SLR by Canon.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_eos300d.asp

As they've replaced it since it may even be affordable if I was working..

Or you could always dream of

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_eos1dmkiin.asp

Their best digital (pro) SLR camera. Yours for a mere 2 grand!

[reddragdiva]

I have no idea either - there's no consistency between (or amongst) A and S lines at all. They is what they is.

The EOS 300D is still around £400 on eBay.

I'm ogling that S2 IS ... I'd looove a camera with IS.

[shamus9999.livejournal.com]

The A series are supposed to be Canon's budget models. (Mine.) They're bigger and heavier than the S series ones.

[reddragdiva]

They're much the same. The A40, A200 and S110 operate almost identically and I think have the same sensor.

I do like Canon's interface usability and consistency a whole lot. I've yet to even crack open the manual for the Ixus 50. teqkiller uses an Ixus 55, the model after mine, as a snapshot camera with great success. She says that her mother, who can't operate any machine more complicated than scissors, gets great shots out of an Ixus 30, even though she had to show her how to operate the flash ...

Mind you, I've just been playing with the EX-S1. The interface is really pretty good. It's actually better than the EX-M2, which makes no sense.

[shamus9999.livejournal.com]

I just wish mine could overcome my shutter-shake. I've heard that some Sony cameras actually have such a feature, which was originally developed for their video cameras.

[reddragdiva]

IS - Image Stabilisation. This is actually mechanical stabilisation in the lens against shutter-shake. The S1 IS and S2 IS large-compacts have it (hence the "IS" in the name) and the SD700 IS / Ixus 800 IS / Ixy 800 IS have it in the ultracompact. I SO NEED THIS FEATURE.

The other way around it is to use 2-second delay, if you've got 2 seconds spare. Press the button, hold steady, click.

[shamus9999.livejournal.com]

If I could hold a camera steady for two seconds I wouldn't need the IS feature, would I? :)

[secretlondon.livejournal.com]

The best way I find is to use a steady surface to rest against. You can then have a long shutter time, no flash and no wobble. However this doesn't work if your subject is human as they move damn it!

[reddragdiva]

The 2-second delay is useful with a wobbly tripod!

(The main problem is that as cameras get smaller, they get lighter, and the mere act of pressing the shutter causes excessive shake. IS is apparently enough to deal with this even on the Ixus 800.)

IS doesn't deal with subject movement — only camera movement.

[secretlondon.livejournal.com]

Of course - only fast shutter speeds deal with subject movement!

I give you this (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Lcd_soundsystems_james_murphy_djing_at_the_Reading_Festival_2005.jpg). I found a space at the front, rested my camera on the metal security barrier, no flash, dark tent. Blur - I forgot the subject was human!

[secretlondon.livejournal.com]

Certainly bigger and heavier. (mine - http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_a80.asp)

My A80 is still pretty feature rich - it has manual focus, custom white balance, add on lenses etc (I have loads of 52mm filters and a wide angle lens).

Of course needing 4 AA batteries makes anything heavy. I'll see if I can bring it to B movie. I'll probably need a larger handbag though ;)

[seph-hazard.livejournal.com]

I might be interested in one of the S100's, as I have just had my beloved little Samsung camera stolen...

[reddragdiva]

Ooh shite!

It's slow and thirsty, but the pics are very nice. You is po', so I'll see if I can't do you a nicer price.

Of course, this means you'll have to come out to somewhere I actually am. MuWAhahaha.

[seph-hazard.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, thank you!

Yes, I am very pissed off about my camera, I loved it. But shit happens!

I have made a New Friend who goes to both B-Movie and Slimelight, so I may well be around a lot more in the immediate future!

[reddragdiva]

oooOOOooo! I eagerly await hearing more on Friday at, oh yes, B-Movie! Email me for more camera info and what you have in the way of computing and etc and so forth: dgerard@gmail.com .

[seph-hazard.livejournal.com]

Poss not this month as I am, as you said, po'. But Watch This Space...
(will email in due course)

[ajohnymous.livejournal.com]

An Ixus 400 — one of the very best Ixus ever made

Why is this the best? I'm thinking about selling my S230 to a friend and upgrading. The improvements I was hoping for are:
* a standard mini-USB in rather than need a proprietary USB cable
* USB 2.0 interface rather than 1.1
* uses SD memory rather than CF
* might be a little faster.
I also figured it might be better to go beyond 3 Megapixels as well, although to be honest I'll likely never care about printing hard copies rather than just screen viewing anyway, so clarity and quality of picture is probably more important than resolution.

Btw, have you played with this program for the Canons yet?
http://www.breezesys.com/PSRemote/index.htm

[secretlondon.livejournal.com]

They already have remote software built in - I'm not sure what that $50 software would actually give me that I can't do anyway - not that I ever use the remote software anyway.

[reddragdiva]

Rilly? Where?

[secretlondon.livejournal.com]

My net is sucking and I can't really browse :(

However it's part of the Canon software bundle - at least for my camera. I seem to have something called CameraWindow which is run from a program called ZoomBrowser. If you go to http://software.canon-europe.com/ you should be able to find stuff there.

If they are all updaters and you need the original software I'll see if I can find my old CD..

[ajohnymous.livejournal.com]

Canon has a downloadable program called Remote Capture. I think the latest is v2.75. I don't believe the download is an upgrade that requires the original disk (or an ISO file of it in a virtual disk). It just requires the necessary TWAIN or WIA drivers loaded for it to work.

The PSRemote program has a lot of overlap with Remote Capture, with a few extra setting tweaks and extra support for doing stop action animation sequences. I certainly agree that $50 for a small utility seems completely unrealistic -- I suppose at those prices the author is expecting to soak professional photographers, rather than just average folks geeking around. For some odd reason, while evaluating it, I didn't notice the cost.

[reddragdiva]

I should say "reputedly one of the best", i.e. forum 'wisdom' for what it's worth. Meaning optically, not in all those other features. IMO, putting up with the misfeatures you name of the older Ixus/Elph line is worth it for the shots.

I think the feature set you're after is present in the PowerShot SD line. After a weekend with the S100, my Ixus 50 (aka SD400) was so fantastically usable — faster, slicker, nicer interface. But somehow, I don't like the pictures quite as much. They're good, but there's something else not there. I'm not sure what it is. Perhaps when I compare the 400 to the 50 I'll be able to quantify it.

That said, the current line are really not bad at all. Apart from my links above, teqkiller has some which are definitely snapshots listed in this comment. Very possibly it's a matter of taste. If you got an SD300, SD450 or SD 600 (which I think tick all the boxes above — check in the shop), you'd probably be very happy indeed with the results.

Check the Wikipedia article for the ticky-box features list, which I wrote the table for specifically to assist me in stalking the perfect Ixus/Ixy/Elph.

I haven't seen that program! Someone on DPreview was asking about such a thing ... consensus was that there was no way to send commands back down the USB cable, but if that's not the case then they'll be quite pleased.